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As soon as I fell into the black puddle, I felt my consciousness stretching beyond my body.

It was a strange feeling. You know that sensation when you feel like you’re falling while sleeping? But now, it felt like that all the time.

I was endlessly expanding, while my body felt like it was shrinking in proportion to that speed. It was a bizarre and odd sensation.

And at the same time, my head felt like it was going to burst. It throbbed and sizzled as if my brain was frying.

I could guess why this was happening. Human brains aren’t exactly designed for situations like this.

I may not know about the brains of abilities users or those with similar talents, but it’s clear my brain wasn’t built for this.

Honestly, who has the experience of controlling a massive blob of slime far larger than their own body like it was their own limbs? And with nerves or senses fully connected too.

Even at this moment, signals being sent by the slime now under my influence were driving me absolutely insane.

A normal brain couldn’t handle the sheer volume of information pouring in; it felt like my circuits were about to ignite.

But hey, there were kids outside, right?

So I had to endure, right?

I synthesized amphetamines, norepinephrine, and methylphenidate, pushing my brain’s performance to the max.

Side effects or backlash? I’d deal with those later; right now, I needed to speed things up.

With my overclocked brain processing the flood of information, I smoothly continued to dominate the slime.

With my thinking speed literally maxed out, my sense of time felt a bit fuzzy. I hoped it wasn’t too late.

In this short time, the kids could easily find themselves in danger.

Finally, as soon as I finished taking control of the slime, I extended my tendrils upward and created eyes to survey the battle situation.

Hmm. Not even seven seconds had passed.

It was still a bit sluggish due to the lingering cold, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.

It was enough for me to turn the tides alone.

The only problem was, how long could I actually keep this up? It felt like my head could crack at any moment.

“W-what the heck is that?!”

Oh, so this is what it’s like to sense the world through vibrations. As the kids’ voices resonated through the slime, they transformed into sounds I could hear.

Lapiz was staring wide-eyed at the rising slime as if horrified, pointing at me… Wait, no. At my slime.

Is my identity starting to blur? That’s not good.

Instead of answering, I created limbs and crawled out of the pit. Definitely easier to manage in a bipedal form.

As I produced a slime clone of myself around my heels, I tried mimicking what I saw in past battles with imitators.

“That’s me. Right now this is a clone.”

“C-can you really do that?”

“Yeah, did it and it worked. But, uh… I feel like I’m split into two. This is super awkward.”

While explaining to the kids as I manipulated the clone, I extended my arm like a whip and swung it towards the imitators engulfed in flames.

As I collected together the scattered papers on the table with my stretched arm, I felt the imitators clinging to me.

Just as I suspected.

They were just using the slime without a core, just like my clone.

I easily controlled the slime that had adhered to my body and manipulated the clone, Blanca, to create a dome of slime around my friends.

I explained the situation to the surprised kids, telling them to keep their knowledge secret while informing them about the imitators.

I laid out everything I knew — the definitions, the way they dominate humans, and the time it takes to do so.

The kids seemed to understand a bit more as I finished.

“If we wrap ourselves in a dome, at least those things shouldn’t be able to touch you. I’m sorry, but this is the best I can do.”

To fight freely, I had to do it this way. I didn’t know how to protect anyone.

Especially if I was up against something that could obliterate someone’s personality with just one touch. So keeping my friends safe was the best I could think of.

At the very least, I needed to keep an eye on things and use my abilities, so I made the slime transparent and kept absorbing the lackeys.

…I wonder if ten minutes is my limit? Seriously, they’re about due to show up any time now. Where the heck are those heroes?

As I complained, I saw the lackeys realize they were pointless, absorbing themselves to take on human forms just like I did.

As the two slime giants walked toward each other, they seemed to promise something and clapped their hands together.

From the moment our hands touched, I felt a chilling sensation as their side started to encroach on mine.

In a creepy real-time experience of losing my senses, I refused to be beaten and began to consume their side.

Whenever I consumed, they consumed back; it was a dragged-out standoff. My head felt like it could explode at any moment, not to mention doing this for even three more minutes would probably knock me out.

“Blanca? Are you… falling apart?!”

Finally, after I reached the point of not being able to maintain my slime clone with my friends, the heroes and soldiers finally showed up.

Fast, really.

Draining what little strength I had left, I brought down the dome of slime and created minimal vocal and auditory organs in the collapsed clone.

“Justitia, hurry, call, the cat-eared one, to freeze it.”

“Got it!”

Minho dashed out at top speed, running over to Justitia who arrived late to convey my will.

But when they didn’t freeze it right away, I asked what the problem was. Apparently, they were treating it like a single entity since it was connected.

Stopping now would mean I’d freeze too.

“In that case, bring it here.”

“I brought it! Now what’s happening?!”

“Is that… Miss Blanca?”

I didn’t even have the time to praise Minho for bringing Justitia. I turned directly to her and said,

“Push it away in three seconds, okay, then.”

With my consciousness hanging by a thread, I conveyed just enough for her to understand, then jumped right into action.

Three. Two. One. Now.

I simply detached my arm and pulled myself out. And at that moment, the enormous blob of slime that had been sluggish suddenly came to a halt as if time had frozen.

…Ah, thank goodness. I’ve at least put out the immediate fire.

Abandoning the slime body, I crammed my consciousness back into my original form and staggered out of the slime.

“Blanca! Are you okay… Goodness, there’s blood…!”

“Blood…? Where… Aah.”

Feeling a strange chill on my upper lip, it seemed I was bleeding from my nose.

Must be from the overclocking side effects.

At least it wasn’t tearing up with blood. I collapsed back in relief.

“Don’t talk to me, it makes me cry…”

I’d done everything I could, so the rest should be up to them.

There’s no way those kids were brought in here without knowing what imitators are. So I let myself relax.

“It seems like we’ve solved the immediate issue… Now what do we do next…?”

“Well, if we destroy the core… Oh wait.”

As I began to unconsciously answer Lapiz’s question, a horrifying thought suddenly struck me.

What if, like just now when it froze, it transformed into another form from the inside?

Justitia’s freezing ability only affected the outer layer of anything in her line of sight.

The insides, blood, and so on continued moving.

So the core could be busy rotating inside like a madman.

If that was the case, how on earth were we supposed to capture it?

And Justitia’s mana wasn’t infinite either.

If it’s this large, she couldn’t hold it for long.

“…Minho, I’m serious. Just one last favor. Go ask Justitia if she can hold it for a few more minutes.”

Minho zipped off and came back, saying she could definitely hold it for about ten minutes.

Ten minutes.

…No way was it feasible to find the core with explosives or lasers; that was pure madness.

Breaking it with an abilities user’s strength was impossible too.

At least not within ten minutes.

Haah.

With a deep sigh, I gathered my thoughts and stood up. Then I walked back over to the still-formed fallen slime giant.

“If we don’t break the core, it’ll be pointless. I’ll break the core…”

In the end, it was down to me.

“It’s okay now, Miss Blanca! You’ve done more than enough!”

Ageha stood in front of me, as if trying to stop me.

…Seriously, why was I stepping up this much?

I pondered for a moment, then eventually came to a conclusion.

“It’s not enough until you all are safe…”

It was for my friends.

Connecting to the slime, I barely extended just my arm to push deep inside the slumbering slime giant’s body.

Sure enough, the core was still moving inside; it was actually touching my arm, consuming parts of the slime at a terrifying speed.

I tried to fight back, but whether from fatigue or a performance gap, I couldn’t keep pace with the rate of consumption.

But strangely, I wasn’t scared at all.

Because I intended to draw it into my home ground.

…Indeed, this was the reason why. If it were like this, an imitator wouldn’t be able to exert its power!

The very same space that had first hijacked my body spread out before me.

A claustrophobic room made of solid cement. Filled with torture devices.

A blood-soaked wooden chair, with an imitator bound to it.

It struggled to escape but only succeeded in further entangling itself in barbed wire.

“With such a weak and vulnerable mental space, no wonder the kin would lose. Wow, I’ve never seen such a harsh and vicious mental state before.”

But the imitator, if anything, seemed to be delighting in it, chattering away.

“At this point, you could call this a mental deformation, right? Humanity and this world are truly amazing.”

“Shut up.”

“Aah, to think this delightful exploration would come to an end here. How disappointing…”

I picked up the machete lying on the table.

The day was already out, but it was more than enough to cut something.

“Thanks to you, I’ve enjoyed myself until the end. Cheers, monster.”

“Who’s calling who a monster?”

“I am, looking at you.”

I swung the blade down at the imitator’s neck.

It wouldn’t cut through in one go, so I had to strike multiple times.

“With such a nature… dreaming of reaching the peak. How amusing.”

The imitator mocked me till the very end.

As soon as its head was severed, I clenched my hand with all my might and crushed the core caught in my grip.

And at that moment, my consciousness went blank.

 

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